Saturday, 24 August 2013

Plagiarism Concerns......Sadly

The definition of plagiarism is

"The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own."

Several weeks ago I had a communication with someone who had obviously looked at my web page and seen the list of presentation and details of "The Book of Me, Written by You". I answered the question they raised and thought no more of it.

Why should I? - The world of genealogy, family history and taking things a step further is developing and genealogists do like to collaborate on projects, which is absolutely something I subscribe to.

Then I had another several communications with other people which left me feeling that potentially a piece or perhaps pieces of my work were potentially at risk of being plagiarized by the initial individual. I slept on the concerns and this morning after a trouble nights sleep I feel just as concerned.

I have no proof, that anything will happen or indeed has happened.

I have a nagging feeling of concern that will not go away

All I have are a series of individual instances that when joined together cause concern

I personally always name someone if they have inspired an idea. An example of this was the February Photo Collage Festival which was inspired by Kristen and Pauleen -

That is good practice

polite

morally the right thing to do.

We all work hard at what we achieve. In the relationships that we build despite the miles, we show respect and friendship. We collaborate ideas and thoughts and that is perfectly acceptable and welcomed.

What is not acceptable is that someone whose work has been created through hard graft is taken and used as someone else's, and furthermore, that friendship offered and received is so easily tarnished, exploited and deceived.

Therefore, I will do this. Should any of my work be plagiarized by anyone, including those well known within the family history arena I will name and shame. It is as simple as that.

12 comments:

Good post. Unfortunately we do have to remind. It shouldn't happen but sadly, I think it does. I don't know if you saw my post on Respect a few weeks ago but I also mentioned this as it has been discussed by bloggers over the years.http://booketta.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/we-could-all-do-with-little-bit-of.html

Well written Julie... I've had so much horrible stuff happen recently to me, within our South Australian genealogy community, which makes me shake my head in wonder... Work stolen, intentions mis- construed and behaviour which makes me shake my head because of the blatant audacity of it. Not to mention those who side with the bullies/ abusers and thieves. I just keep working on and doing what I know I need to do and try to ignore the negativity... Not easy though. Hope everything works our well for you very soon Julie. Cheerio for now, Catherine.

Oh so true! I made a HUGE point of this last week in my talk on blogging. It's theft, pure and simple. Even plagiarism is a nice name for it. It constantly amazes me that people who really should know better (from the academic community especially) will happily use your work (even with a passing mention of you, rather than the full extent) -the same people would be hysterical if it happened to them.

To some extent we can't expect those who have no tertiary training to fully understand the principles of others' copyright so spelling it out is important.

It's on the internet (or in writing etc), it's free, right? WRONG!!We're with you on this Julie!

Linkwithin

About Me

I am a Surrey girl, who is very proud of her roots, which go back almost 300 years in Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire. I currently live in the West Country of England, but Surrey is always home! I am also half Italian and thus have an interest in Italian culture and genealogy.

After a career in pharmacy management spanning more than 20 years, I made the decision to look at my options as to where my professional life was heading. I wanted to expand my work portfolio within the training and writing arena; to utilise my historical and research skills along with other qualifications and years of experience. I created The Book of Me, Written by You back in the Autumn of 2012. It threads together the focus of my interests and qualifications. Enabling me to encourage others to think beyond the obvious as we analyse our own lives and those of our close family members.

Copyright

The material, both written and photographic on these pages is the copyright of Julie Goucher & Anglers Rest unless stated. Material on this site may be used for personal reference only. If you wish to use any of the material on this site for other means, please seek the written permission of Julie Goucher & Anglers Rest.